The Coward Does It with a Kiss
by Surprised by 7
Summary: They were the four greatest friends Hogwarts had seen. No one could have guessed how it would end, least of all the Marauders themselves. How did fate change things so drastically?
1. Chapter 1

If he were quite honest with himself, he would never have guessed it. Not until the light rushed towards him, time slowed down, and eternity made itself known, would he have anticipated the chain of events that had led to this moment. As time ended for him, he felt it all beginning again. Like opening a book, the pages unfolded in his memory…

He was eight years old, and wriggled as his mother was trying, in vain, to get his hair to lay flat before their company arrived. "Mum!" he whined, "Who are these people anyway?"

"Be still, dear. They are some of my co-workers from the Prophet, Roger and Sylvia Pettigrew. I believe they are bringing their son. He's about your age, I think. _Why_ won't your hair ever lie flat?" his mother, Dorea Potter, responded, exasperation evident in her tone.

James knew, because of the frequency of such comments, that his response was neither required nor desired, so he remained silent. He was happy to learn that these guests had a child his age. Because of his parents' age, it was rare that their friends had children close to him in age, which had made for a somewhat lonely childhood.

"Miss Dorea! The Pettigrews have sent word that they are apparating now!" a small voice squeaked a few minutes later.

"Thank you, Willow, we will be right down." Dorea said to the house elf who had appeared at James' bedroom door. Turning her attention her young son, she sighed. "Well, you do well and truly take after your father in your hair. Go fetch him now, please. Tell him we will greet the Pettigrews in the sitting room."

James waited until he was out of his mother's sight before he ruffled his hair she had worked so hard on by running his hand through it. He couldn't explain it, but it just felt more _right_ when it was messy. He hurried up the grand staircase to his father's study.

"Papa! Mum said to tell you the Pettigrews will be arriving and we are meeting them in the sitting room," James said, dutifully.

"What's that?" Charlus Potter asked, looking up from one of his files from Gringotts, where he worked as the liaison between the goblins and the Ministry.

"Mum's friends from work, they're arriving!" James repeated.

"Ah! Yes, the Pettigrews!" his father said with his ever-present cheerfulness, as he stood and stretched from craning over the papers for so long. "James, my boy, you'll like their son, Peter. I was good friend's with Sylvia's brother, Alfred, growing up and I've heard that Peter takes after him in many ways."

His parents, were, in fact, mistaken. The two did not hit it off right away, or at all, really. The Pettigrews were a nice enough family, James thought, as he drifted off to sleep hours later. Peter was, in James' opinion, perhaps the dullest person he had ever met. However, because James was short on friends and rich in friendliness, the evening had not been a complete waste. Peter would be returning the following Saturday, so that the two could "Get to know each other more," as his mother put it.

James knew that his parents were looking for someone to partner with for his next level of schooling, and he assumed the Pettigrews were in the same boat. At eight, their sons were too young to attend Hogwarts School for Witchcraft and Wizardry, but their magical abilities were becoming too pronounced for him to continue attending the Muggle school in their district. As with most pureblood and halfblood families, James knew that this school year, he would switch to a form of wizarding homeschooling, where a few families would partner together to encourage their children to pursue the classics, while also teaching them the basics of wizarding history, culture, and traditions and gaining greater control of their abilities. The current headmaster of Hogwarts, Albus Dumbledore, thought this added preparation was so beneficial that he had begun seeking out muggle born students earlier than age 11, as had been customary in the past, to join in the education endeavors. As of yet, this venture was not going so well. It was James' guess that the Pettigrews and the Potters would be in the same home school group and his mum and papa were trying to help him make friends before school began in three weeks.

The next visit was slightly improved on the first. After a bit of an awkward start, the two found common ground in their love of quidditch. James and Peter raced to the back shed and mounted the two brooms they found there.

"I should get to ride first!" Peter declared, as the boys pushed off the ground.

"First?" James asked, "I thought we were racing!"

"But that's no fair! It's your broom!" Peter pointed out, as he hovered off the ground.

James had to admit that the sandy haired boy had a point. "Well, how about we practice like we's chasers?" he suggested, landing his broom and fetching the quaffle from the shed from where they had earlier retrieved the brooms.

"Right! Where's the goal?" Peter asked.

James looked around, "How about we aim for the row of hedges?" he suggested, realizing that the backyard, huge though it was, sorely lacked in would be goal posts. Peter nodded as James rose to meet him in the air. After two passes, Peter went to "score" for the first time…and missed sorely. The quaffle flew over the row of hedges and landed with a loud splash in James' neighbor's pool.

James, knowing that Mr. and Mrs. Bones were not fond of children, glanced at Peter in alarm. Peter, sensing that something was wrong, turned to James and asked

"What now?"

James did the only he could think of, diving to the ground, shouting for Peter to follow him and then running back into the house. He had underestimated the distance from the shed to the house, unfortunately, and entered to the sound of Mrs. Bones telling his mother her version of what had just transpired. James and Peter took a deep breath, and stepped into the kitchen to see what the damage was.

It was bad. Mrs. Bones was wearing what appeared to be worn out old robes, gardening gloves, a large brimmed hat and had evidently been caught in a sudden shower. Worse, though, was the sight of the cat the old woman was holding. It hissed at the boys as they walked in, as if aware that they were responsible for its currently soaking wet condition. Mrs. Bones' anger was evident, not only from the shrill tone of her voice but also from the sparks that were emitting from the wand in her pocket.

"Dorea, honestly, I do not understand why you insist on living in this neighborhood when you have hooligans running around!" the old woman nearly shouted.

"Charlotte," Dorea Potter began, her voice dangerously calm, "I insist on living in this neighborhood because there have always been Potters in this neighborhood. And because the fact that you don't like children has nothing to do with the fact that Peverell Manor is a good neighborhood for children. Before you continue your rant, I would also encourage you to consider who has more of a right to be in this neighborhood—the halfblood family with no ties to the Peverell brothers, or the pureblood family with direct ties to Ignatius himself?"

"Why. I never-Dorea, that is." Charlotte Bones blustered. "Just try to keep your troublemakers under control," she finished, before turning and rushing from the room.

After watching the older woman walk out the door, Dorea turned to the two boys.

"Mind telling me what exactly happened?" she questioned, raising an eyebrow and trying to keep a smile off her face.

James took a deep breath, ready to take the blame for what had happened, since he was the host, but Peter immediately jumped in and explained exactly how the Potter quaffle had ended up in the Bones' pool.

James was amazed that Peter was willing to take the fall, especially since Peter did not know his mother as well as James did, and was probably expecting a punishment. James felt at that moment, that he had found a good friend. Peter was not the most interesting conversation partner, but the two troublemakers, as Mrs. Bones had dubbed them, found plenty of ways to occupy themselves over the years—from frying ants with their fathers' telescope lenses to racing brooms. James always bested Peter at their lessons—for he had been right, their parents did want to partner them for the new school program—but Peter bested him in something James found much more appealing: pranking.


	2. Chapter 2

She wanted, in those final moments, to pretend to herself that she had always known there was something off about him, but this would be a lie. The honest truth was that he had always been somewhat of an afterthought to her. As soon as James had yelled for her to "Take Harry and go!" she had known what must have happened. She rocked her son and told him that she and James loved him, and the tears that traced their way down her cheeks in that moment tracked memories that she wished were different…

She was eleven years old, pulling her trunk behind her, eager to begin her adventures at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, and smiling as she saw Severus on the platform. "Sev!" she called, waving to her best friend, a slightly tall, very pale, boy with black hair that had the unfortunate appearance of always being unwashed. As usual, Sev was scowling until he saw her. Then, for the briefest of seconds, a smile would light up his face. Lily Evans was feeling rather out of place at the moment, having been surprised by the need to run through the wall to reach the train and seeing Severus Snape calmed some of her anxiety, bringing a feeling of calm and home to this altogether foreign environment. It all looked, smelled, and sounded very English, but nonetheless, Lily felt she did not quite fit in, at least not yet. She looked over her shoulder to see her parents and motion for them to join her with Sev. As she hurried over to her friend, a boy her age, with mousy hair brushed pass so quickly as to almost knock her over.

"How rude!" she exclaimed to the boy's retreating form. He had joined two other boys who looked to be about her age and they had begun chatting excitedly. Sighing, she continued on her way to find Severus. Together, the two made their way onto the train and began to search for an empty compartment, while Severus struggled to keep up with the almost constant stream of questions Lily was firing at him.

"Can you remind me about the houses, Sev? Is there a way to make sure we're in the same one?" she asked, more than a little anxious about the thought of being stuck with no friends on the first night.

"There's four houses, y'remember. Ravenclaw is for the brainy and Gryffindor, for the brawny…" Severus began, only to be rudely interrupted by one of the boys in the compartment they had just walked up to.

"And where are you hoping to land, seeing as you're neither?" the boy drawled, in a voice that was at once haughty, over sure of himself, and clearly masking a bit of nerves. "Certainly not Slytherin," the boy she now recognized from the huddle with the mousey haired boy continued, "Honestly, I think I'd leave, wouldn't you?" he asked, directing the question to the other child in the compartment.

The boy in question, whose hair was the same shade as Severus' but laid much flatter than the first boy's seemed capable of doing, frowned. "My whole family's been in Slytherin," he replied.

"Blimey!" the first boy shouted. "And I thought you seemed alright."

"Well, I'm kind of hoping I won't follow them, to be straight withya," the second boy responded.

"You shouldn't discount the house so quickly," Severus interjected, "It has quite a noble history! Lils, I hope you…" he was cut off again, by the second boy this time.

"A noble history of turning out some of the absolute worst wizards and witches ever!"

The conversation halted there, as suddenly the mousey hair boy made his presence known again, by simultaneously dumping water all over Severus and pulling the hood of his robes down over his face. Both of the boys in the compartment laughed rather cruelly at the state of affairs Severus found himself in and high fived the third boy.

"Nice one, Peter!" the first boy said.

Lily turned her attention to her best friend, helping him to get untangled from his robes and seeing in his face a look of humiliation that she would become all too familiar with over the next five years, usually due to the presence of the boys behind her.

"Why are you so, so, so rude?" Lily demanded of the boy she now knew was called Peter, her green eyes flashing.

Peter shrugged, "Dunno, but anyone who praises Slytherin kind of deserves what they get," he responded before turning back to the boys.

"C'mon, Sev, let's go find our own compartment," she said loudly, glaring at each boy in turn before turning on her heel and marching into the hall without looking back. If she had, she would have noticed the first boy look just a tad bit guilty for a half of a second as he reached his hand up to ruffle his already messy hair. She would have also seen the second boy shake hands with Peter and introduce himself as "Black, Sirius Black."

Later that evening, she had the very unfortunate experience of being seated in between the three boys after the Sorting Ceremony. Despite Severus' hopes, she had not been sorted into Slytherin, although the Hat would eventually send him there with in almost an instant of touching his head. She, however, had been sent to Gryffindor after just an instance longer consideration. She had intentionally sat at the further end of the bench from the second boy from the compartment, who had been the first new Gryffindor, but as a certain Jones, Gwyendon, Lupin, Remus, MacDonald, Mary McKinnon, Marlene, and joined the table, the room between them filled quickly. This, unfortunately, meant that by the time Pettigrew, Peter and Potter, James, were made Gryffindors, Lily Evans found herself shaking hands with Potter and deciding on the spot to hate him for what had happened on the train. The same, obviously, held true for Pettigrew. Prewett, Alice and Wood, Richard became the final two Gryffindors in her year and suddenly the plates in front of her filled with the most delicious food she could imagine. She caught Sev's eye and shrugged sadly, only to see him turn away with a scowl to his own table. With a sigh, she dug into the food and hoped that this would not be what most days at Hogwarts would be like.

The next morning, she woke up and rushed to the Great Hall to get her schedule, hoping against hope that she and Sev would have some classes together. All in all, the evening had gotten better after they went back to the Gryffindor Tower. The other girls in her year, Gwen, Marlene, Mary, and Alice seemed wonderful and she hoped they would all five of them would be friends, along with Sev and whoever he had met in the Slytherin House. The boys, on the other hand, had only grown in their annoyance levels, from Lily's perspective. She had a small inkling that she was the only one who really found them annoying, but she was determined to hold the Train Incident against them.

Upon receiving her schedule, Lily was disappointed to see that she had only one class with the Slytherins and therefore Sev. First she would have Transfiguration, Charms, Potions, and History of Magic. Then, after lunch, the Gryffindors would make their way to the greenhouses for something called Herbology. The last class of the first day was Defense Against the Dark Arts, which simultaneously thrilled and scared her. Every third evening, she would have Astronomy and on Thursday, she would have her first flying lesson.

Transfiguration made her head spin. Charms fascinated her. Potions was where the trouble began. Horace Slughorn, her professor, had decided to pair them off randomly rather than alphabetically, as Professor McGonagall and Professor Flitwick had done. Because they were paired with the Hufflepuffs for both of those classes, she had worked with a boy named Benjamin Fenwick, who was very friendly and more than willing to help her fill in the blanks that her muggle background left. She knew, walking into Potions, that they wouldn't be partnered together for the simple reason that this class was with the Ravenclaws. She did not anticipate that she would end up partnered with Peter Pettigrew.

She wanted to like Potions. For the first time, this made class was making sense in her understanding of school. It reminded her of her old science classes with experiments. They started with a very simple potion, called a Shrinking Solution. Lily knew it was simple because Professor Slughorn had said so a number of times in the introductory part of the lesson. Unfortunately, apparently Peter Pettigrew could not handle simple potions. Within only three minutes of beginning their potion, her new cauldron had been melted into a twisted pile and leaking wet cement type solution. All of this because Peter had put in spider legs when the potion called for lacewings. Professor Slughorn hurried over and vanished their mess, and lectured them both sternly about the importance following the directions:

"Exactly as I tell you! Otherwise who knows the damage that could result! Just sit out the rest of class, reading chapter one. I want an essay on the difference between spider properties and lacewings by next class. You may begin now"

Peter Pettigrew would remain on her bad list.


End file.
